Ronaldo earns 4th best-player award

Cristiano Ronaldo received FIFA’s best player award for the fourth time, after Portugal and Real Madrid won both major European titles in 2016.

Ronaldo, 31, beat runner-up and five-time winner Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann for a sweep of individual awards.

Ronaldo got 34.5 percent of total voting points to Messi’s 26.4 percent in a 23-candidate ballot.

American Carli Lloyd won the women’s honor despite the United States being eliminated in the quarterfinals at the Rio Olympics. Five-time winner Marta of Brazil was runner-up.

Claudio Ranieri, who led Leicester to a stunning English Premier League title, was named Coach of the Year.

Roberto Cabanas, who played for the New York Cosmos and was a top player for various clubs and Paraguay, died in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion. He was 55. Valerio Cabanas, the brother of the deceased, said the cause was a heart attack.

Canadian defender Kadeisha Buchanan has signed with the French club Lyon. Buchanan, who played in college at West Virginia, joins U.S. forward Alex Morgan, who announced in late December that she’ll play for Lyon. Tennis: Top-ranked Angelique Kerber lost her opening match Tuesday at the Sydney (Australia), 7-6 (5), 6-2 to Darya Kasatkina, ahead of her Australian Open title defense next week.